August 30, 2006

Talons

This week, when I asked my first year students why they came to Small Green School, one young man said, "It's the only school that would let me bring my hawk." His hawk? Yep. He is a falconer. He'd made special arrangements with OrnithologistGuy, who is on our faculty, and the red-tailed hawk is now living in a room at the top of the science building.

So this afternoon after class, a handful of students and I met Falconer in the big, park-like cemetery that adjoins our campus. Falconer held up a thick cowhide glove – a gauntlet, he called it – and told me to put it on my left hand. Following his directions, I stood still, with my arm raised in front of my face, my hand just a little higher than my elbow. He stuffed a piece of raw chicken between my thumb and fingers. Then he whistled to the hawk that was perched on a rock across the grassy lawn.

The hawk flew into the air, straight towards me, fast, and then landed lightly on the glove, just inches from my face. His sharp talons gripped the thick glove as he balanced, and he reached down with his hooked beak to rip apart the meat, swallowing it in a few gulps. His eyes, spaced on either side of his head, seemed to see everything as he swivelled his head about. A hawk's eyesight is eight times better than a human's. When I shifted my hand, the hawk opened his gorgeous brown-and-white wings, flapping until he was balanced again.

Today was a long day which included meeting a student at 8 am in my office, teaching three sections of my writing course, meeting with advisees, getting together with a colleague to sort through archival material, meeting with several independent study students, and teaching a 5 pm seminar. But what I am remembering from the day was that single moment -- standing in the cemetery watching the wings of a red-tailed hawk open.

I always think of shakespeare when I hear about falconers--and about trying to explain to my students what all that imagery is about in Romeo and Juliet. nice to hear about a real-live falconer and his hawk

There is a place about an hour north of Toronto that I have wanted to go to for a long time. It is called the Falconry Centre. (http://www.falconrycentre.com/) They even have a falconry school there. It's something that I have always wanted to do!

Sarah Sometimes: I always think of Yeats. "The falcon cannot hear the falconer."

Linda: The coolest thing was to be just so up close. I felt like a tree or something though, because the hawk just ignored me, mainly going after the meat and then looking around at any movement around us.

Wol: Falconer was about twelve when his grandfather said something about how people used to keep falcons. So he looked up stuff on the internet, and spent the next two years learning all he could learn via the internet. When he was 14, he was old enough to get a license and a bird.

If you ever get a chance, every spring Braddock Bay Raptor Research does a Hawk Watch at the bay. Thousands of hawks fly over on their return from Canada because they have to go around Lake Ontario. They usually have a falcon banding demonstration etc.

I used to volunteer with them and it was one of the coolest things I've ever done. I've held red-tail hawks, eastern screech owls etc. while giving short eduational talks. I also got to volunteer at the banding station.

I love this story. I have always been fascinated by falconry and how the kind of bird you could hunt was determined by rank and gender. I can only imagine how wonderful it would feel to connect via the weight of a bird on your wrist with a whole world of other creatures in the wild. Awesome.

Not only a once in a lifetime experience for you, but a bonus teaching moment: your students saw teacher as learner in action. Now they really want to learn to write with you! Of course that's not why you did it, which is what makes it such a wonderful learning dynamic..